NEW DELHI -- This was nothing less than the Shah Rukh-Salman Khan "hug moment".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung gave shutterbugs a picture on Sunday that would have come as a surprise to many, given their recent power tussle.
Yet at the CM's Iftar party on Sunday, he welcomed the L-G with a warm hug. Kejriwal later said that the "sour relationship should go away."
The moment reminded us of the time when Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan hugged each other at MLA Baba Siddique’s Iftar party after 5 years of quarrel. The same gesture was repeated last year at the same venue.
In a similar fashion, after months of an acrimonious power struggle, the two top men of the capital sat together and beamed as camera teams had a field day capturing the moment.
"The sour relationship should go away because, anyway, there are no hard feelings as such," Kejriwal told reporters. "Everybody is doing their work. If we work together, only then will the country progress."
The Kejriwal-led government in Delhi has been locked in a turf-war with the BJP-led government at the Centre, with the former accusing the latter of interfering in the affairs of the Delhi government through the L-G’s office. They have clashed almost constantly in the past few months over key appointments.
Kejriwal says the L-G, who represents the Centre in Delhi, has no right to take decisions without consulting his government. Delhi is not a full state and some crucial functions like land and policing are under the Centre's control.
The bitterness was not evident when Kejriwal embraced Jung as soon as he was ushered in by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“This is a celebration. Everything between us (the L-G and Delhi government) is good," said Sisodia to The Indian Express. "There is nothing more to understand."
Besides Jung, the CM had also invited Vice President Hamid Ansari, former CM Sheila Dikshit, Police Commissioner BS Bassi and Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit at his Iftar party in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi.
Kejriwal took turns sitting with Ansari, Dikshit and Jung. Check out more pictures from Kejriwal's Iftar party below.
(With inputs from PTI)
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